AMC’s Preacher
Season 2, Episode 10: “Dirty Little Secret”
Directed by Steph Green
Written by Mary Laws
* For a recap & review of the previous episode, “Puzzle Piece” – click here
* For a recap & review of the next episode, “Backdoors” – click here
We see two people together, having sex after meeting in a bar. The guy says he has something to do for his father, a “promise” he made. So after they’re done, he says he loves her. Plus, she can’t ever tell anyone.
Because his name’s Jesus Christ. His twelve boys are looking for him. And some of them don’t look too happy that their saviour’s been shacking up with a woman. “It‘s been real,” the lord says as he leaves.
Present day, Herr Starr (Pip Torrens) and Jesse (Dominic Cooper) sit together at the bar. Talking about classified information held by the Grail. Rather than listen, the preacher tries laying a beating on him. He tries using Genesis, too. To no avail. But this German’s the last dude a sadistic beating’s gonna work on.
Starr’s certainly not adverse to playing the game, though. He wants to aid Jesse, of course in return for something, I’m sure. But first, he’s got to convince the preacher. They put a bag over his head and take him away in one of those white vans.
Back at the apartment, Tulip (Ruth Negga) ain’t feeling so hot. She continually has horrific dreams. At the same time, Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) has ladies in bed with Denis (Ronald Guttman) to try making up for all those birthdays he missed, “about to play Twister.” Quite the situation over there. And Lara (Julie Ann Emery), she’s still poking around, looking for her gun. Just an excuse for her to get closer to Tulip, in any way possible. Made easier by the fact our girl’s head is a mess currently.
Lara a.k.a Jenny: “It‘s how I like ‘em: all elbows ‘n Adam‘s apples.”
At the Grail HQ, Jesse gets introduced to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope himself, both sitting in Starr’s office waiting for him. WAITING. For HIM. That’s called power. Scary fucking power. They tell him of a “traitorous cabal of angels jealous of God‘s authority” are rebelling. Mutiny in Heaven. Well, so says the Archbishop. Pope believes he’s done with this place. He’s moved on to create a better world, a new spaces. Two mentalists with competing, maniacal theories of where God’s ran off. Then the Pope makes mention of “the boy” who’s the only one who can lead them. But Starr cuts him off before too long. Quick use of Genesis gets the answer, that this boy is the Messiah.
So the Jesus opener is leading into an idea of a bloodline, running from Christ onward. A royal lineage, of sorts. The mother with whom Jesus lay before he died is beaten to death. To keep things nice and secretive. Back then, a man named Thaddeus (Dean J. West) looked after the literal blood of Christ, aiding to preserve the child’s life so as to carry on the family of Christ for centuries and centuries.
Problems elsewhere once Cassidy finds Denis is getting a bit too into the whole vampire thing. He runs off the girls they’re out on the town with, he can’t control all his urges. Hilarious, in a dark sense, because the way Cassidy talks to Denis is similar to how a father might talk to his young son about his burgeoning adolescent sexual feelings. Only this is a whole lot creepier.
Lara’s slipped up, mentioning that Tulip spoke of Dallas. Only our girl can’t remember that. Things are fine right now, though I wonder if the Grail operative is going to do something drastic. Then Tulip starts pushing. Luckily for Lara she’s quickly called Hoover (Malcolm Barrett). He poses as the abusive boyfriend from her past, which ends with the two women kicking the shit out of him in the hallway. Nice cover. Further bonding them together, keeping Tulip less aware of who she’s dealing with truly.
Meanwhile Jesse’s being taken all over the place by Starr and the Grail. Bag over his head, unaware of where they are at any given moment. Trippy. They’ve gone to see “the Christ Child,” the figurehead of the Grail, the Messiah. He lives in a simple room, a crucifix on the wall, candles lit nearby as he writes silently. The preacher kneels in front of him, proclaiming that he feels Genesis was given to him so he could help find God.
One problem. This descendant of Christ is a sort of surely inbred, mentally challenged infant, he draws puppies and pisses all over himself. A genuinely horrifying scene.
Herr Starr: “We call him Humperdoo”
This all ends up with Jesse disillusioned in his quest for God. What we see is that Starr is also disillusioned. But he sees hope in the preacher, in the power of Genesis. He’s got his own ways of doing things, yet that’s the endgame: “Why go on looking for God when you can just be him?” Blasphemy, or semantics? Jesse and Starr are on either side of that question. The former’s not too happy with the suggestion. Only he’s running out of options in his search. We’ll see how far he gets as the Grail manipulates him from behind the scenes.
Fucking great episode! Lot of dark things swirling around, becoming less campy than they were and feeling more dangerous. Really love the writing in this series; not to mention the fantastic directing, as well. “Backdoors” is next week. Really amped for it.
We see a young Jesse Custer, watching a pistol put to his father’s head. The boy says he “prayed for this.” He feels he did that to his dad. In present day, the memories still remain with Jesse (Dominic Cooper). Deep, dark.
Now there’s a Grail SWAT team headed directly for the apartment, locked, loaded, and loving Jesus Christ! Amen. They head in, equipped with night vision and assault rifles, the whole nine yards. Inside they come across Cassidy, attacking a group of them. Another one shoots Denis. Jesse kicks the shit out of him, then orders him using Genesis: “Kill your friends.” As they stab the vampire, he takes them out one by one. Unable to stop himself. Before the preacher can get answers from the last remaining man, vampire Denis attacks, sucking him dry of blood.
Starr is educating himself more on the preacher, watching the surveillance footage of him. As well as digging into the man’s past, from his boyhood right up to before he left Annville. I wonder if he’ll come up with something to use against Jesse, something that might hurt bad.
Fantastic fucking episode! Loving the inclusion of the Grail more, Herr Starr is terrifying. After this episode I’m especially unsettled by him, which I didn’t think was any more possible.
What are things like in Hell? Eugene (Ian Colletti) is buffed up a bit, using the time to work out. He’s got a TRACY tattoo across his back. He’s like one of those tough guys you see in a prison movies, a veteran of the block. He and Hitler (Noah Taylor) aren’t as buddy-buddy as they were before. But y’know, shit happens. Here, you aren’t allowed to be nice, either. Not to anybody. It’s Hell, for fuck sakes!
Flashback to 1946, as Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) looks over tiny newborn Denis in the hospital. His boy. In present day, Denis (Ronald Guttman) is old, on death’s door. He hates his father, even more now that he won’t be granting his son eternal life. Flat out refusing. Because he knows the pain of being immortal. Living forever isn’t so great when you’ve also got to deal with lost love, unrequited love, mistakes, failures, deaths, so on. It’ll get ugly.
Cassidy starts asking Tulip about his immortality, wondering if she ever wanted to live forever. Trying to see other opinions. She gives us the typical “nothing to be afraid of” line. To which Cassidy replies: “Things still hurt.” Everything from that unrequited love to the sun, can’t even go enjoy the beach anymore. The pain of immortality comes through in this scene, by way of Joseph Gilgun’s powerful, quiet acting.
Tulip just about runs into the Grail operatives, after knocking on the apartment door next to Denis’ place. She’s trying to fix the bullet holes from the Saint. Well, she does run into them. Just not as themselves. Close call. Tulip and Lara actually bond for a second there, too.
Man, this was a heavy episode. Loving these bits of the story with Cassidy, fleshing out the concept of what it would be for a vampire to be immortal, living amongst humans. Never thought of one having a child. So cool! Love this series. Preacher gets better with age. “Puzzle Piece” is next week. I have a feeling there’ll be some coming together, as per the name. Maybe a genuine piece of the puzzle will come to Jesse, or somebody else.
Fittingly, we open on a pig. In Vietnam. A man and his wife bicker in a small hut over cooking. The woman starts screaming, calling her husband over, as they gawk in horror.
New Orleans is a mess, as people lie drunk in the streets. Piled onto carts driven around by people taking them to safety. We head to the last jazz club in New Orleans, where we find Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper), Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun), and Tulip O’Hare (Ruth Negga). The vamp suggests they “have some fun” rather than constantly searching for God, especially after their latest troubles.
Tulip is having nightmares, flashes of the Saint of Killers (Graham McTavish) holding her by the throat, a sky of raining bloody fingers like “french fries” as she later describes. Her encounter with the cowboy’s left her scarred, emotionally, mentally. He haunts her inescapably. She’s such a tough woman that it’s scary when something scares her this much. Makes me uncomfortable.
Jesse speaks with a Doomsday preacher (John Ales) on the corner of a street, giving out his thoughts on scripture. Our preacher asks him about the end of the world, something of which he’s been thinking a lot lately.
In Vietnam, Herr Starr has killed the whole village to conceal the existence of the pig, as well as the pig itself. Where’s he off to next? Well, he’s gotten word about Jesse Custer. Meanwhile, the pig story, the village, it’s all explained in a natural sounding way. To cover up a massacre. Plus, that massacre is headed the preacher’s way soon.
Fun episode. It builds on Tulip’s latest troubles, Jesse and his relentless search for God, his obsessions, and now we’re introduced to Herr Starr, a nasty, brutish man who’s also fun in a creepy kinda way. “Holes” is next. Wonder how things will go from here. Curious to see how things go for Cassidy, too. He’s losing Denis, he’s in love with Tulip. Christ. Sticky situations, all around.
The Technician (James Kyson) is setting up a procedure for a man, his wife is worried about the consequences. What sort of procedure, exactly? Involves a strange contraption the Technician inserts into the back of the man’s knee, like a scope. He locates something, drains it of 15% of its fluid. For this the man and woman receive $150K. The Technician, he’s carted around in a secure truck by armed men. Like a normal workday.
Denis ain’t doing so well, and the sweetness of our vamp Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) is clear when he tries helping the old guy out. But he can’t win, our man, he’s thwarted at every corner whether it’s by Denis, Tulip (Ruth Negga), or Jesse (Dominic Cooper). Otherwise things aren’t so bad, after all the nonsense with Viktor (Paul Ben-Victor) is finished; even further than any of them realise. The vamp and the preacher are patching things up after their brief rough patch, too. All’s well, for now. I mean… sort of.
Jesse uses Genesis to try and stop the Saint, saying that he’ll come back to the apartment and meet him. There, he finds the cowboy holding Denis hostage. The preacher tries making a deal, talking to the Saint. “God ain‘t givin‘ you shit,” he tells the man. Hearing that God may be gone is enough to lower his gun. Jesse fills him in, showing him the video of the fake God. He knows the killer wants into Heaven, but without God? Not gonna happen, dude.
But it seems not having a soul is the only thing that protected the cowboy from Genesis, which Jesse uses liberally against him now. He takes him on a ride in the armoured truck, out into the swamps. Where he keeps the Saint of Killers locked inside, then sends it into the water to sink. Ah, the threat is quelled for the time being. Not so sure it’s going to keep him down for good.
Fantastic chapter in this second season, I mean, honestly – what more could you ask for? Smart, witty, and bad fucking ass, all around! Can’t wait for “Pig” next week because we’re going to find out about that file we saw a few episodes ago, what it means to a greater extent.
So Jesse (Dominic Cooper) just found out Viktor (Paul Ben-Victor) is Tulip O’Hare’s (Ruth Negga) husband. He’s got the guy in the torture room, too. He even uses Genesis to get who he thought was his lady out of the room. As she reminds him of “Dallas” and asking if he wants to “go there again.” Hinting at a dark, dark place in the preacher’s former life.
I mean, normal life doesn’t suit either of them. Not Tulip, and certainly not Jesse who looks wholly miserable without a bit of criminality in his existence. But there’s also the fact they were both on different wavelengths. She likely didn’t want to jump right back into conceiving a child after just losing one, whereas he seemed to feel the only way to get past it, to get over the loss was to replace the child now gone.
It all broke down when Jesse stumbles across something stuffed in a vent at home: a bag filled with cash. She’s been working their old contracts again, after lasting only three weeks at her real estate job. She isn’t made for the straight life. He isn’t, either. But he didn’t realise that. However, we also see Tulip’s been lying, taking birth control without telling him. That’s a bit sad, though again: her life’s been shit. Still, I can’t help feeling they’ve both done each other wrong. Plus there’s the fact Jesse beats his friend in anger, terribly, showing off that dark temper we can already see is inside him lurking.
So what does he do?
Loved this one, filled in bits of backstory for Tulip and Jesse that I was hoping to see sooner than later. The writing in this series is great, because the characters come through so subtly, even without some of the flashbacks. Yet those moments give life to the actions, reactions, emotions of Jesse and Tulip in present day after seeing what they’ve been through. “Sokosha” is next week, looking forward to a bit of action as the Saint of Killers is hot on the gang’s trail.
Tulip O’Hare (Ruth Negga) is in one hell of a pickle. Men are sent by Viktor (Paul Ben-Victor) to collect her. Doesn’t look like much of a way out for her. They cart her off to an uncertain fate.
Speaking of trouble, poor Arseface aka Eugene Root (Ian Colletti) is trying his best to fit in at the prison in hell. Things are pretty tense down there. Adolf Hitler (Noah Taylor) picks up for the young man when another inmate is bullying people around. Such a strange, surreal place. Eugene gets locked out of his cell, so Adolf invites him over to his own hell. Funny enough, Hitler’s hell isn’t particularly bad because it’s Munich in 1919 and he’s totally unlike himself, no problem with Jewish people and nothing insane going on in his head. My guess is this is hell for a truly evil person: their normalcy, their world without power, fame, genocide, and so on.
One thing I enjoy is that Cassidy infantilises Tulip, whereas Jesse says “if there‘s one thing Tulip O‘Hare can do it‘s look after herself.” I mean, yes, there’s reason to be concerned for her. But I love that Jesse trusts in her, that whatever she’s into it’s something can handle. This is exactly why they’re together. She doesn’t need or want any man babying her. Despite the fact she might need a helping hand at the moment.
Cassidy reveals that Tulip’s off taking care of personal business. This sends the preacher on a fucking rampage. Well, first he uses Genesis to keep the men in their places at Viktor’s home. He runs into the sick torturer in one room, they guy we saw earlier using a man sort of like a pinata. The guy with all sorts of weapons on his walls. He and Jesse fight to “Uptown Girl” by Billy Joel. Genesis doesn’t seem to work on him, either. An AWESOME FIGHT SEQUENCE! Possibly the best on the series out of the two seasons so far, honestly. Wild, weird, brutal. Just like the comics ordered.
Cracking episode! It wasn’t exactly a twist, just dig how the whole episode and plot with Tulip+Viktor has played out. Looking forward to “Dallas” next, to see more about this latest tension. Gonna be interesting to watch how Jesse handles things from here.
We flashback to Ofelia (Mercedes Mason) on the road by herself, after fleeing Mexico and leaving the others behind. Right before she meets Jeremiah Otto (Dayton Callie), firing bullets at her from a distance. Before greeting her: “Welcome to America.”
Madison brings Ofelia at gunpoint to the Black Hat, confronting Walker. She wants answers, and resolution. She wants to know what was put into the coffee, what’s poisoned her son. “Anthrax,” he tells her. Incurable. At the same time, Walker respects Madison, not wanting her harmed. Says she’s “more of a man” than either of the Ottos. And she makes it very clear they’re not going anywhere. They’ll fight and die with the ranch.
The tribe finds parts of their land blazing in flames, Troy and the remainder of the militia, as well as Madison and Alicia on the horizon. Everything’s going sideways, fast. Back at the ranch, Nick is digging under his little house. He’s found something he wants to share with Jeremiah: a skull. To whom does it belong? The old fella tells a story about the Natives wanting their land back, killing cattle. He and the other Founding Fathers killed several of the men. The skull belongs to Walker’s father.
Doesn’t look like a deal will go smoothly with Walker, even after Madison offers up the skull of his father. It’s either leave or die. No more options, no more bargaining chips. In with Jeremiah, Madison talks more about the situation, about how he’s leading them all wrong. She offers him a solution: kill yourself. He won’t, though. He wants her to kill him. He’s sticking to his racist guns. Then once Nick shows up the deed is done; he finishes it off before mom can take a shot.
I’ve always loved Fear the Walking Dead. No denying the quality has shot up in this latest season. Mid-season break will take us into the fall, likely somewhere around when The Walking Dead premieres for its 8th season. I do hope we’ll get a 4th out of this one, too. So many good characters, wild situations, various plots and twists. Can’t wait for the return.
Out on his own, Jake (Sam Underwood) heads out in hopes to talk with Qaletqa Walker (Michael Greyeyes) about their problems. On the way he hears noises behind him: it’s Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey). She tells him about the Trimbol family being killed, that it was Walker and his people. Except we know the nasty truth. Of course it shocks Jake, though he wants to keep going, to try fixing things.
Madison (Kim Dickens) worries when Alicia isn’t around in the morning, though Nick (Frank Dillane) says to leave it be, she’s a grown woman. Then there’s Jeremiah (Dayton Callie), he isn’t so worried. And he’s egging Nick on, further towards a violent edge, in the same way of Troy (Daniel Sharman).
Walker shows Alicia the bones of his great grandfather. He had to take them from his grave, so as not to be desecrated by the Otto family and their plans for the ranch. This gets the two of them into talking about the afterlife. The Native leader he believes there’s a “grand plan” and that the apocalypse is merely the “Great Unveiling” to him. He believes it’s the “dawn of a New Age” where the impure are shed like snake skin. The First Humans will once again inherit the Earth.
But Ofelia is cast out, as well. Beaten. She and Jake are dropped back home. Things are more unsure than ever before, for everybody. We also see the strength of Nick, saying he’s “suicide proof” and volunteering to stay behind to fight if things go haywire. Troy doesn’t dig that. It’s like he’s trying to create a whole new family, feeling protective over Madison and Nick, even if he sorta wanted to kill them at one point.
A solid episode leading up to the mid-season finale. “Children of Wrath” is next and there’s a war about to go down.
Tracy Loach (Gianna LePera) calls Eugene Root (Ian Colletti), back… before, well… you know. He arrives at her house, she’s crying and clearly upset. She’s been humiliated by her boyfriend. Cheated on. Now she plans to kill herself with her dad’s gun. Everything is in place. Suicide note and all. It’s a pretty good one, truthfully.
Jesse (Dominic Cooper), Tulip (Ruth Negga), and Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) are heading into New Orleans, listening to a bit of jazz. Although not every one of them’s such a fan of the music. Tulip’s got secrets, too. She doesn’t want to wind up running into Viktor, bits of her past that her man may not necessarily feel so hot about, I’m guessing. Regardless, the preacher is looking for God. And knows he digs jazz, as well. The vamp isn’t particular, either. Long as there’s booze involved, maybe a bit of a few other substances.
On and on through the French Quarter, our preacher roams. “Looking for God” gets him laughed at, punches thrown in his direction, much more. He drinks his way from bar to bar, keeping up the search. Nobody has any good answers, you can be sure. Until one bartender suggests talking to a singer in another local bar.
Hell isn’t a nice place, like you guessed. Trapped in a grimy, nasty prison, the sounds of people wailing and crying and an endless-looking hallway of other cells outside of Eugene’s own. Not to mention the people bunking nearby. Such as the German fellow across the way, Adolf Hitler (Noah Taylor). One of many souls trapped in the darkness. Not a nice guy to be sharing a block with, probably into some weird shit.
“Viktor” is next, we’re definitely going to have a look into the past of Tulip and the titular villain. Furthermore, notice files on both Jesse Custer and one named simply Pig?
